Tributes to dad killed in crash

Published:15:46Friday 28 January 2011

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TRIBUTES have been paid to a well-known builder and devoted family man who died in a motorbike crash in Germany.

Dad of two Carl Jackson, 41, of Healey Road, Ossett, was killed when he lost control of his Aprilia motorcycle and crashed head-on into a moving car while travelling with friends in September last year an inquest was told.

Mr Jackson, a joiner and self-employed builder had been married to Helen for 24 years.

After the hearing she said he was a “wonderful person who would help anybody”.

Mrs Jackson said: “Carl was a kind, hard-working husband and dad and he was so proud of his daughters Zoe, 17, and Fiona, 19.

“We’re absolutely devastated to lose him. He was so well respected in his profession and will be sadly missed by everybody.”

Mr Jackson went on motorcycling holidays abroad every year with a group of friends the inquest was told.

Friends and family said he was a “careful and experienced” motorcyclist.

But in a statement read out during the hearing, a friend who had been travelling with him at the time of the accident said Mr Jackson made a “tragic error of judgment” while negotiating a sharp bend near the town of Schotten.

He sustained multiple injuries and died at the scene on September 10.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded by assistant deputy coroner Mary Burke.

She said: “The road had a sharp right-hand bend and it was well known to local police to be something of an accident blackspot.

“What is also clear is that Carl is unlikely to have ever driven his motorcycle along that stretch of road before.”